I’ve had my batch 4 AMD unit (7840) for nearly 2 months now. Just over 7 weeks. I just thought I’d give an update on my experience with my simple use case. Why simple use case? Well, I don’t use my machine for coding or any specialty software, and I don’t use a dock or an external monitor. With that in mind, here we go.
I installed Fedora 39 and the few programs I use for my needs. This includes Gimp, Darktable, Stellarium (crashes on start-up unless I start it in windowed mode, but I think that’s a compatibility bug with Wayland at the moment), a couple games (non-Steam), and Steam with a couple old strategy games. Fedora 39 includes LibreOffice with the install, so I didn’t have to separately install that, but I do use it, along with the calculator, screen-capture feature built in to GNOME, etc. I use Firefox for browsing, email, etc. I transfer stuff to and from my NAS, and just all the day-to-day stuff I use my laptop for.
So far, I’ve had essentially zero issues. I’ve been using the laptop daily since I got it. I have the charge limit set to 80% and that feature works great to allow me to feel more comfortable just leaving the laptop plugged in when I’m near a charger. This is helpful, since my only real “complaint” at the moment would be power draw when watching any kind of video content. I haven’t measured the actual power draw, but battery life seems to drop by half or more when watching a video. Otherwise, battery life is sufficient. Even only charging it to 80%, I can get through a typical, light use day, even if I do watch a videos for a bit. On a heavier use day, or if I have videos playing while I’m doing tasks around the house, I just leave it plugged in whenever I’m near the charger to be sure I don’t end up with a low battery when I’m not near an outlet.
So far, I haven’t run into any charger compatibility issues. I mainly use a Framework charger and a Lenovo, 65W charger. I’ve also plugged it into the 90W USB C PD hub on my desktop monitor and that charged it fine as well.
The only customization or modification that I’ve done to Linux beyond just installing it and updating it when it finds updates was to install a plugin that allows certain animations in Firefox would play correctly. I haven’t done any battery life tuning or any other tweaking to make things work or work differently. Just running “stock” Fedora 39, GNOME.
One thing that is slightly annoying is that when the computer is asleep, plugging in or unplugging the charger will wake the computer up. Not a huge deal and not even technically a “problem,” but it’s a little annoying when I forget and push the power button to put the computer to sleep and then unplug the charger and it wakes back up. Still, other than that I’ve had no other sleep issues. If I push the power button or shut the display it goes to sleep and it wakes back up basically instantly if I push a button or open the display. When asleep, the battery seems to drop around 1% per hour, maybe a little less. I can live with that.
I definitely notice that the display is more “wobbly” than the Macbook I used for years. I would appreciate if it wasn’t quite so flexible. However, I wouldn’t give up the easy disassembly and the repairability for a stiffer chassis and display housing. I’ll take the more flexible top case over one that is fully glued together, for sure. And the issue really isn’t too bad. I can type at my standard pace (an unimpressive 60-80 words per minute, generally) with the laptop sitting on my knee or on the arm of a chair without the display wobbling, even though the laptop does move about a bit in those situations. So that’s fine.
I really like the keyboard. I do appreciate and enjoy typing on a good, mechanical keyboard. Maybe it’s just because I’ve been using laptops for 20 years, but I’m also totally comfortable typing on “chicklet” style keys. And I think the Framework keyboard strikes a good balance of key travel and force required. I’m not going to say it’s the best keyboard ever or anything, but as my new daily use machine, I like the keyboard more than I thought I would. Bear in mind, I’m far from a keyboard snob. I enjoy typing. I find it satisfying and relaxing, I don’t know why. I absolutely have preferences, and I’ve spent more than I care to admit over the years on mechanical (and otherwise) keyboards, because I do like a good keyboard. But I’ll use just about anything. With that said, I think FW 13 keyboard is pretty good. The feel of the key action is fine and I even like the smooth, slick feel of the clear key caps on the clear keyboard. Though I’m not a fan of the arrow key layout. But there are already multiple topics on that.
The bottom of the laptop does get warm even under light use, and very warm when doing heavier tasks or even just watching a video. But the fan rarely gets loud enough to be distracting, so it’s a tradeoff.
I also like the matte display. For a matte display it’s very crisp and has good contrast. It won’t match a glossy display in this aspect, but I prefer the low glare. A glossy display is a bit more punchy, but if I can’t see half of it because of the horrible reflections, the extra sharpness and contrast isn’t doing me much good.
As for the touchpad, I find it totally usable. It’s smooth and fairly precise, gestures and two-finger scrolling work well, and sensitivity is reasonable. Palm rejection while typing could be better, but I unfortunately have found that to be true with a LOT of laptops over the years. Physical clicking works fine, but it’s a bit stiff and there only seems to be “left” click. Clicking on the left or right corners of the trackpad both register a left click, but that may be a GNOME thing. I mostly use tap to click anyway and two finger tapping for right click works fine. So the physical clicking is mostly a non-factor for me. Overall, it’s not bad, but coming from a Macbook, most touchpads aren’t going to measure up, so what are you going to do. It good enough that it doesn’t leave me constantly wishing for a mouse for everyday tasks, so it’s fine.
Those are just some thoughts after using the machine pretty much every day since getting it almost two months ago. Overall, it just gets out of the way and lets me get done what I need to get done with a daily-use laptop. Though, I do hope a driver update reduces power draw during video decoding at some point.